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Insurers' Capitol Fix Comes With a Catch

By

John Carney

July 28, 2014 1:30 p.m. ET

Plans to rescue the biggest insurers from bank-capital requirements may face an as-yet-unseen stumbling block.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council could, as early as this week, designate MetLife as a systemically important institution. It already has done so with Prudential Financial and American International Group.

This poses a double-barreled threat. It would subject the insurers to more-stringent oversight and...